Today in
Guatemala, Guatemala

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Guatemala Weather

If you travel south from the United States right after Mexico, you will find the Central American country of Guatemala. Guatemala weather is affected by its location and the fact that it has coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The combination of the two coastlines plus the hot temperatures means that Guatemala weather can be hot and humid for most of the year. There are three geographical regions in the country: the first one is the mountainous area, second one is the Pacific coast and the third one is Peten. The three regions have different altitudes and that means that the weather can vary between them but the summers are hot no matter where you are. There are two seasons that are recognized in Guatemala: the dry and the wet season.

The Highlands

Most of the people in Guatemala live in the highlands. This is also the place where you will find a lot of the most popular destinations for visitors including the city of Antigua, Coban, Lake Atitlan and Semuc Champey. The altitudes in this area are usually between one thousand meters (3300 feet) to two thousand meters (6600 feet). The highlands are considered the temperate zone in Guatemala weather. You will notice that the temperatures vary a lot from what you see in the middle of the day to what you would feel at night. The temperatures during the day range between 21.11 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) and 29.44 Celsius (85 Fahrenheit) and they hardly go over those temperatures.

The Pacific Coast

The Pacific coast is where Guatemala weather becomes tropical climate. The altitude in these areas is very close to the sea level and it does not reach over 1000 meters (3300 feet). Though the Guatemalan beaches are beautiful the weather can be really hot and humid. It is not rare for the temperatures to reach 40 degrees Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit while nights can still be high in Guatemala weather temperature with temperatures that hardly ever drop below 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). Some of the destinations that are located in this area include Puerto Barrios, Puerto San Jose, Monterrico, Retalhuleu and Puerto Quetzal. This area of the country of Guatemala, even though it has the beaches close by, will welcome rain to cool people down from the higher temperatures. The humidity is really high.

Peten And The Jungle

The jungle lowlands and Peten are known for their humidity and tropical climate. Peten is located north of the mountainous region to the north of the country. There are not that many people who live in this area as the jungle is not the most comfortable Guatemala weather. There are two large cities in the entire Peten area and those are Tikal and Flores. One thing that you will find in Guatemala weather when you visit Peten is that it rains a lot. The average per year is 1500 mm 59 inches.
The temperatures are also rather high as they hardly ever will drop below 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) and often they are above the 30 degree (86 Fahrenheit) mark. Visiting Peten should be planned to avoid the rainy season between May and October and you should also be ready for the high temperatures.

The High Mountain Areas

The one area in the entire country of Guatemala where the temperatures can drop is the high mountainous area. This area is described as the places that reach over 6600 feet in altitude. The daytime temperatures are much lower than in the temperate zones and at night the temperatures in this area of Guatemala weather can in some cases show either snow or frost. There is only one major city that is located in this area and that is Quetzaltenango which is in the northwest of the highlands.

The Seasons

The temperatures in Guatemala weather will not vary throughout the year. The one thing that does change is the amount of rain which is what defines the two seasons. The only seasons that Guatemala sees are the summer, which is the dry season and the winter, which is the wet season. During the winter, which is the months of May through October, Guatemala weather is rainy with tropical showers seen mostly late in the afternoon.

The summer season goes from November through April and the weather is clear throughout the entire season. One curious thing about the weather patterns in Guatemala is that the summer months are in fact cooler than the winter. The country gets colder in the months of December and January which is seen by many as the best time to visit the country.